IN-FORM Barnt Green have been warned by skipper Andrew Sutton to keep their feet on the ground as they bid for a fifth consecutive Birmingham League Premier Division victory this weekend.
The Cherry Hill Road side have been enjoying their cricket over the last month and go into Saturday’s clash at Kenilworth Wardens in high spirits after a commanding 28-run success over former champions Shrewsbury.
Green recovered from 21-4 to reach 154 all out before the visitors were then skittled out for 126.
With batsmen Jamie Harrison and Matt Lamb as well as spinner Alex Woods – who picked up a nine-for a fortnight ago at Brockhampton – expected to return to the squad, Sutton is confident his side can keep up on pushing further up the table.
“The momentum is certainly going our way at the moment,” he said.
“Kenilworth are a decent side but they seem to be a hit and miss side and if you catch them on the wrong day they can put you under a lot of pressure.
“We are a confident bunch right now especially after we lost four or five games on the spin at the start of the season.
“We have been working hard in training and preparing well before games but we have to keep our feet on the ground and not get too ahead of ourselves.”
Green were put into bat by Shrewsbury on Saturday and looked to be in deep trouble as Joshua Poysden, Tom Brown, Ed Pollock and William Baker were removed early doors.
It was left to overseas signing James Psarakis to salvage the innings as he hit a steady 64 off 108 balls while Ethan Holmes chipped in with a valuable unbeaten 27 in the lower order as Green posted 154 all out.
Sutton (3-41) and Adam Hines (3-31) then combined to reduce Shrewsbury to 19-5 in reply and despite a unbeaten half century from skipper Ben Stebbings, the visitors were removed for 126 with five overs to spare.
Poysden (3-22) and Darrel Williams (1-2) grabbed the rest of the wickets.
“I thought 154 was a little under par as I told the lads earlier in the game that setting a target between 170 and 180 would be sufficient,” Sutton said.
“We were superb with the ball as a group and picked up two wickets in the first over which changed the game for Shrewsbury very quickly.
“Things got a bit ‘squeaky bum time’ when their skipper Ben hit an unbeaten 50 towards the end but we did well to eventually bowl them out.”
